This invention relates to a nozzle assembly for a turbine engine.
A turbine engine for an aircraft has a nozzle through which thrust gases from the engine pass. The nozzle may have a port, which is used to guide the aircraft. This fluidic thrust vectoring port presents several design challenges. Specifically, for high aspect ratio exhaust nozzles, such as elliptically shaped nozzles, there may be a significant pressure drop between the area where the fluidic thrust vectoring port obtains flow gases for thrust and the area of the nozzle where the fluidic thrust vectoring port discharges into the core gas path of the turbine engine. Such a pressure drop is undesirable.
In addition, as the fluidic thrust vectoring port is opened, the area of the nozzle around the port can be starved of cooling flow. This cooling flow is necessary to keep the nozzle from overheating. Accordingly, it is important to prevent the migration of flow from one section of the divergent section of the nozzle to another.
Moreover, a nozzle using a fluidic thrust vectoring port may have an over-expanded divergent section to obtain favorable pressure ratios for fluidic thrust vectoring. As a consequence of this over-expanded nozzle design, there is a large load placed on the flat sections of the nozzle, making it difficult to control nozzle deflection.
A need therefore exists for a nozzle assembly that addresses each of these foregoing problems.